A variety of subsystems to distribute ballots that individual voters use to record voted selections are utilized in governmental elections in the United States. One such subsystem uses paper ballots that are mailed to the voter who marks the ballot and returns the ballot through the mail. Mailed ballots have been historically reserved for absentee voting. In the usual absentee voting process, the voter marks the ballot to cast his/her vote and then inserts the ballot in a return envelope which is typically pre-addressed to the voter registrar office in the corresponding county, town or locality in which the voter is registered. The voter typically appends his/her signature on the back of the envelope adjacent his/her identification. When the return envelope is received at the registrar's office, a voting official compares the voter signature with the voter signature retrieved from the registration file to make a determination as to whether or not the vote can be considered as authentic.
One general problem with vote by mail envelopes is the signature is in the open and exposed for all to see throughout the process for determining whether or not the vote is authentic during the comparison of the signature recorded on the envelope to the signature retrieved from the registration file which gives rise to privacy issues and concerns. Also, in the prior art system, signatures are exposed to numerous delivery workers throughout the mail delivery process. Further, there is little control over who records the vote thus adding to the issue of privacy concerns. In addition, voting by mail is becoming more prevalent apart from the usual absentee voting and in some western states, entire elections are being conducted exclusively by mail which also give rise to these privacy concerns because of the exposure of the voter's signature on the registrar return envelope.
One possible solution to ensure the privacy of the voter is to have the signature placed below the flap of the envelope so that it is hidden when the envelope is sealed. The flap would have a pre-cut perforated area substantially in registration where it covers the signature. At the registrar's office, a voting official tears off the pre-cut perforated area to open a window thereby revealing the signature to allow the signature to be compared to the signature retrieved from the registration file. The ballot itself however, would remain sealed inside the envelope so that the voting official who authenticates the signature cannot see the ballot. Once the signature has been authenticated, the envelope is opened and the ballot removed and passed onto another voting official to count the votes. The proposed solution is rather cumbersome to do by hand and is virtually impossible to automate and integrate with an automated processing of vote by mail ballots such as for example, a system known as “Relia-Vote” and available from the assignee from the present invention. A further drawback and disadvantage of the proposed solution is once the signature has been revealed, it remains visible to the voting officials who remove the ballots from the envelope to count the votes and to any person authorized or not who happens to be in the vicinity of the signed envelope. Accordingly, the issue of voter privacy is still a concern with the proposed solution.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an envelope for use in containing and authenticating a ballot wherein the privacy of the voter is maintained during the ballot examination and vote counting process.